COVID-19, the common name for the novel coronavirus, was originally an illness transmitted through animals, but soon evolved into a human illness that spreads from person to person by respiratory droplets. In just a couple of months, COVID-19 became a global pandemic that continues to impact our daily lives. I remember hearing about the first coronavirus case in the US sometime around late January in my digital photography class. At the time, I didn’t pay much attention to it because there was a 2,856-mile distance between the state of Washington and Connecticut. However, as the weeks went by, more cases started to emerge and the virus made its way towards the east coast, striking New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts. I still wasn’t very concerned until the first case hit Connecticut in early March. It was around this time that schools and businesses started to close and COVID-19 was officially declared a pandemic. It didn’t take long for me to realize how serious this virus had become in such a short amount of time. The first confirmed case in East Haven, CT was approximately March 20th and just four days later, my dad tested positive for COVID-19.
At the age of twenty-five, my dad moved from his hometown, Cestillal, Colombia, to the United States in search of better work opportunities. He and my mom left from Medellin, Colombia and arrived in New York on February 13, 1998 at 11:50PM. Two days later, my dad had found a part time job as a cook at a restaurant. A month later he had a full-time job as a machine operator at a factory. For the first nine months, they were fortunate enough to have lived with my mom’s cousin until they were able to move into a different apartment. Despite their initial luck, they still had a lot of obstacles to overcome. When my dad attended high school in Colombia, he took a two-hour English class every week. However, since he graduated in 1990, he had not practiced the language consistently enough for it to stick with him eight years later. Due to this, anytime he went out, he carried a dictionary to help him communicate with people he met. The biggest obstacle he had to overcome was being undocumented. Having no legal papers limited the opportunities he had when he first arrived. When looking for a job, most places of work require employees to have their documents. Buying a car and buying a home are two things that are also not permitted without papers. However, soon after they arrived, a law was put into place that granted amnesty to those who entered the country with a Visa and allowed them to obtain their papers through working at a restaurant. Although this seems to be easy, the process was very lengthy and difficult. He had to meet with his lawyer often and attend appointments set by immigration. At these appointments, he would be told the documents he needed, and he would have them sent to him from Colombia and then translated once they arrived. He had to obtain proof of residence, taxes, and employment. More importantly, he had to have money to be able to pay for all of these steps. Nevertheless, after five years of waiting he was approved and got his papers.
To this day, my dad continues to work at the same factory he became a part of twenty-two years ago. Although he left the restaurant as an official worker in 2016 to pursue work in construction, he continues to help with any issues they encounter construction wise. On top of working at the factory, my dad works anywhere between forty to fifty hours on construction every week to make ends meet. Although this job has helped contribute to where he is now, unfortunately, it also comes with risks. Similar to myself, my dad didn’t think too much of the virus when he first started hearing about it on the news. He continued on with his days and paid little attention to the virus until it reached Connecticut. “Honestly, I didn’t take any precautions. I was in the first hundred cases in my town and at that time, they weren’t requiring us to wear masks in public. However, they did encourage us to wash our hands and social distance.” Although he was skeptical at first, it didn’t take long for him to realize the severity of the situation. On March 20, the day of the first known coronavirus case in East Haven, he started developing a fever. The first two days he wasn’t very worried because he has gotten the flu before and was “familiar with its symptoms.” However, each day that went by, it got progressively higher, so much so that on the fourth day he was taken to the ER to get tested for the virus because his fever had reached 105°F. It was there that he was told he could no longer work and had to quarantine until he received his results. On March 28th, he received the long-awaited phone call, during which he was told that he had tested positive for COVID-19.
The next three weeks were slow and excruciating. He suffered from high fevers, unbearable body aches, strong headaches, constant dizziness, an aching throat, and difficulty breathing almost every day. Throughout his life, he’s never had a fever that high, so the doctor gave him five pills to try to normalize his temperature as much as possible. From there, he had no other medication and was given home remedies. Since he couldn’t keep much food down, he had a variety of light food such as tea, herbs, and fruits. To get all of these remedies, though, was a struggle. “I laid in bed every day because I could barely get up. By the third day, I wasn’t capable of doing anything and knew I was sick, there was no denying it. For more than twenty days I lived in one room and one room only. I would only leave the room to go to the bathroom across the hall or to pick up my food which would be left about eight feet away from me.” My dad is a person who is always out and about, so being confined to one room for over a month “felt like being imprisoned.” Luckily, he had the support of his friends and family the whole time. Everyone would take turns buying groceries and leaving him anything he needed on his doorstep which minimized the risk of spreading the virus. However, seeing all of this support made things a little more difficult for my dad. He would get very stressed and have panic attacks very often. “I would call the doctor and tell her my throat was hurting beyond words and that I was having difficulty breathing and she would tell me to call an ambulance to go to the hospital. I knew if I did this that would be the end for me. Just thinking about not being able to see my family anymore would cause me to go into a panic.” Thankfully, he didn’t have to go to the hospital and his symptoms slowly started easing away.
After almost two and a half months of testing positive, my dad is finally starting to return back to normal. He’s been able to return to both jobs and continue his regular routines, but his throat still bothers him once in a while. Despite this, he is keeping a positive attitude and continuing to live his life with the lessons he learned from the virus. “My life has changed a lot and I think totally different now. I now think that you have to live a happier and less complicated life because death can come at any moment. This virus changed me in many ways, even religiously. I pray more often than I did before. Before me and after me are two completely different people.” COVID-19 is not something to take lightly and unfortunately both him and I learned the difficult way. Although I didn’t test positive, watching someone that I love suffer from a distance is something I hope that I never have to do again. The virus has made a huge impact on our daily lives and will continue to do so for a long time if we don’t continue to follow the precautions in place right now. Although cases are lowering in Connecticut, cases are rising rapidly again across the country. I know it may not seem like an imminent threat at the moment, but we need to take precautions and not allow it to take control over anymore lives life like it did my dad’s.
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